LOS ANGELES -- If Joe Thornton were running the NHL, the only two teams playing on New Year's Day would be the ones competing outdoors in the Winter Classic.

But Thornton isn't in charge, and so the rains in Pittsburgh that pushed back the start of the game between the Penguins and Washington Capitals effectively reduced it to one of seven overlapping games on the schedule.

"It would have been nice if that was the only game on tap, and all the guys could watch it," Thornton said after the morning skate. "All the players kind of like to watch those games, and it would have been nice to go back and do that after your little snack this afternoon. Now we can't watch it at all."

Actually, Thornton and his teammates could watch part of the first period as it was being shown on the giant video board at Staples Center -- more to accommodate fans, of course, than players, who were taking pregame warm-ups.

Scott Nichol agreed with Thornton, but Douglas Murray stopped short of taking things that far.

"Obviously, you would like that game to be, at that time slot, the only one going on," Murray said. "It may be a little tough allocating a whole day to it."

Coach Todd McLellan hedged on his answer:

"You're asking me as a coach of another team. We just live in another world. It's great that the Winter Classic exists and stuff, but we're not really that excited about it. We're focused on what's happening here."

Advertisement

Even without the Winter Classic conflict, Saturday's game at Staples Center seemed to be barely a blip on the Los Angeles sports radar screen because of the Rose Bowl game between Wisconsin and Texas Christian in nearby Pasadena.

Nichol didn't mind that at all.

"That's perfect," he said. "When you're on the road, that's exactly what you want -- there won't be a lot of people here maybe, and you just come in, get the two points and leave. Just kind of in and out, and they don't even know you're here."

Dany Heatley played hockey at Wisconsin before turning pro and couldn't have been happy when the Badgers lost the Rose Bowl, 21-19.

But earlier in the day he was wearing a bright red Wisconsin baseball cap, a gift passed along to Heatley when the Sharks were in Minnesota.

San Jose's other ex-Badger, Joe Pavelski, missed this trip because of a lower body injury, but Heatley indicated he knew Pavelski was there in spirit.

"I'm sure he's watching at home," Heatley said. "Probably has his hat on and his kid wearing something Badgers."

Pavelski missed his third game and Torrey Mitchell his fourth, also with a lower body injury. Derek Joslin was a healthy scratch.